Much research and development goes into developing firmware in devices such as sensors, which are used in conjunction with remote locations having specifically developed software. For example, the car refinishing business is a large industry that has demanding customers. When a portion of an exterior car surface is refinished or repainted, such as occurs in repair work, every customer wants the new surface to match in color with the rest of the car.
However, matching the color surfaces on car exteriors is becoming significantly more difficult to accomplish, because there are thousands of color shades to choose from, as many as forty thousand. Thus, the amount of information needed to make a precise color match in a bodyshop is becoming very difficult without specialized computer help.
Typically, in the past, a bodyshop specialist relied on his sight to compare different paint colors and surface shades, and applied a final coat accordingly. This is becoming increasingly difficult even for the most skilled tradesman.
One device that has been found beneficial for this problem is a multi-angle spectrophotometer, or color sensor. The sensor is held against a car and senses color from three different viewing angles. Such a sensor is presently sold by Akzo Nobel Coatings International, b.v., presently under the trade designation Automatch(g)ic. This sensor allows bodyshop workers access to spectrophotometric readings. The sensor stores information relating to the sensed color and then transfers that information via a serial port to a remote computer such as a notebook or personal computer, which processes the information through resident color formulation software and by appropriate algorithmic and calculation functions. The result is an accurate measurement of the final color.
The sensor can take and store color readings of up to 120 vehicles before interfacing and transferring the information to the remote computer. The remote computer receives and processes by its resident color formulation software the stored color information to obtain the desired color statistics.
Much research and development went into developing the color sensor and the associated color formulation software. Because of the commercial importance of this development, it is necessary to insure that interface protection exists to prevent any users from using the color sensing unit with unauthorized software that is not proprietary to the sensor and software vendor. This same safeguard should be applicable to further sensor and software developments, and developments with other devices such as video game cartridges.